Arab League suspends Syria and seeks sanctions

The Arab League suspended Syria yesterday until President Bashar al-Assad implements an Arab deal to end violence against protesters, and called for sanctions and transition talks with the opposition.

Syria charged the League with trying to ‘provoke foreign intervention in Syria, as was the case in Libya

Syrian envoy Yussef Ahmad angrily denounced the move as illegal, saying Damascus had already implemented the deal and claiming the US had ordered the suspension.

Ahmad charged the League with trying to “provoke foreign intervention in Syria, as was the case in Libya”.

A statement read by Qatari Prime Minister Hamad bin Jassem Al-Thani said the League decided “to suspend Syrian delegations’ activities in Arab League meetings” and to implement “economic and political sanctions” against Damascus.

The suspension will last “until the total implementation (by Syria) of the Arab plan for resolving the crisis accepted by Damascus on November 2.”

But Ahmad told a Cairo press conference that Damascus had “implemented all the articles of the agreement,” even though at least 125 people have reportedly been killed in the flashpoint city of Homs alone since the deal was inked.

“It was clear (the decision) was decided through a US order,” he said, accusing the League of working for an “American agenda”.

Ahmad also said the moves decided by the organisation’s foreign ministers by a majority vote “put an end to joint Arab action and show that the (League’s) administration is subjected to US and Western agendas”.

Apart from the suspension, which had been sought by the Syrian opposition, the League called for the withdrawal of Arab ambassadors from Damascus but left the decision to each member state.

Sheikh Hamad said the measures would take effect on Wednesday, and that Arab ministers would meet again to decide on specific sanctions.

The statement also called for the protection of civilians and said League chief Nabil al-Arabi would contact international organisations, including the UN, if the bloodshed continued.

It called for a meeting in Cairo with Syrian opposition groups in three days to “agree a unified vision for the coming transitional period in Syria”. The opposition would later meet with Arab foreign ministers.

A week of deadly violence in city of Homs overshadowed the meeting, in which ministers had appeared divided on what measure to take but eventually voted on the final statement with 18 in favour, three against and one abstention.

Under the November 2 deal, Assad’s regime agreed to release detainees, withdraw the army from urban areas, allow free movement for observers and media, and negotiations with the opposition.

Instead, human rights groups say, the regime has intensified its crackdown, especially in Homs.

“Homs is a microcosm of the Syrian government’s brutality,” said Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East director of Human Rights Watch, which accused the regime of crimes against humanity based on its systematic abuses against civilians. At least 23 people were killed in violence in Syria last Friday alone, most of them civilians in Homs, which an opposition group declared a “humanitarian disaster area” earlier last week.

Yesterday, three people were killed in clashes in the northwestern region of Idlib, near Turkey, after between 50 and 60 soldiers defected to the opposition, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

And in Homs, security forces carried out raids and arrests in two districts, while heavy gunfire was heard in another.

With Nato ruling out operations and UN Security Council sanctions unlikely because veto-wielding permanent members Russia and China are allies of Assad’s regime, regional actors have come to represent the best avenue for pressure.

Damascus argues it has moved forward on the deal by releasing 500 prisoners, and Ahmad had on Friday expressed his government’s willingness to receive a pan-Arab delegation.

The US, which has called on Assad to step down, insists his regime’s days are numbered and that even Arab leaders are encouraging him to go.

“Some Arab leaders already have begun to offer Assad safe haven in an effort to encourage him to leave peaceably and quickly,” said Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs Jeffrey Feltman.